Missing Home
by LuckyLittleTurtle
Summary: Sometimes, Agents get home sick too. Or, the one where Simmons misses home, so she shuts out the world, and Fitz.


Jemma missed being home. She missed her friends, her family, and she missed when she didn't have to think about dying at times. But, she's an Agent now and times are different. Don't get her wrong she loves her job, but sometimes she misses the security of her own home. It only took a few days for Fitz to notice something was off with Simmons, and he was determined to find out what it was.

It was a late night in the lab when Fitz starting noticing something wasn't right. He had made some smart remark about some off species they were examining, and Simmons didn't have a smart remark back. She always had a smart thing to say after Fitz, it was their thing. They always tried to outsmart each other, but tonight Simmons stayed quiet. Fitz found it odd, and stopped talking for the rest of the examination. After they were done, Jemma cleaned up and went directly to bed without a goodnight or a goodbye to Fitz.

Two days later they were in a jungle, god knows where, taking samples of plants they've never even heard of. Leo was starting to worry for Jemma, it wasn't like her to ignore people, especially him. But today, we was bound to get to the bottom of what was wrong with her.

"Hey, can you hand me one of those vials?" Fitz asked, picking a leaf off a plant, and deciding that this was the part he wanted to research.

When Jemma didn't respond, busy in her own little world, dissecting plants for research and NOT talking to Fitz, because she was sad and depressed and just missed home, he tried again. "Jemma," He called, reaching out to tap her on the side. "The vial?"

Oh right, the vial. Jemma reached over and picked up a vial from the case and handed it over. She watched Fitz put the leaf in the vial and seal it shut.

Fits noticed her staring after he put the vial beside him with the others. He thought she looked lost in reality, and wasn't even staring directly at him, but past him. He started, to become uncomfortable when she wouldn't stop and wasn't listening when he started calling her name

"Jemma? Jemma, earth to Jemma, Hello?" He called again and again. Finally he decided enough was enough, and raised his voice.

"Simmons!" He yelled, reaching across the dirty jungle pathway to grab her arm.

"Hm, what? I- Fitz?" Jemma finally came to reality, shaking her head, trying to get the thought of 'Family. Family. Family" out of her head.

"Hey, are you okay? You're not even gathering information about these plants, and that's like, you're favorite thing to do." He recalled, rubbing his hand he grabbed her with, up and down her arm.

"Yeah- yeah, I'm good." Jemma replied, shocked by his sudden outburst.

"Jemma, how come I don't believe you?" Fitz asked, retreating his hand from her arm and placing it at his side.

"It's nothing," She paused, taking a deep breath. "Can we just go back and put these labs into the computer?" Motioning toward a bundle a vials, she grabbed a handful and placed them in her bag.

Deciding that he might as well drop it before he started to nag and cause a fight, Fitz grabbed the rest of the equipment, and headed back toward the lab with Simmons trailing slowly behind him.

It wasn't until three days later, that he decided he had enough with the way Jemma was acting. They were in the lab yet again, and Simmons was being quiet like usual. She didn't even fully understand what they were working on, Agent Coulson just sent them into the lab with a handful of files that they needed to work on, and that was it.

Pulling up file after file onto the monitor screen, Fitz wasn't even paying attention to Jemma. He was so motivated to get this job done, that he was caught off guard when she spoke out.

"Do you ever miss home?" She asked, voice soft and quiet.

"I'm sorry?" Fitz cursed at himself as he closed a file out from the sudden question.

"Home. Do you ever miss it? Because I do, a lot actually." She corrected herself, drawing her attention away from the screen, and looking directly at him instead.

Turning around, Fitz eyes scanned her face and his heart ached at the sadness it held.

"Yeah, sometimes but who has time to think about that when we're so busy with work?" Because honestly they were, but he couldn't lie and say he didn't. He did sometimes, and the only way to not think about it was to work and work, until home slowly faded from your mind.

"I don't know, but I do something – a lot actually." Simmons looked down, playing with a piece of lint on her pants.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of, Jemma. I'm sure all of us here has thought about it a lot once." Fitz took a step closer, pulling the chair beside Jemma out and sitting down next to her.

"I know but-"

"Hey, it's okay to feel home sick. Don't feel bad, Jemma c'mon." He spoke softly, taking her hands in his and pulling them toward his chest.

"I don't, it's just, I miss them badly." She whispered, keeping her head down. She felt tears coming on, and did her best to hold them in.

Letting her hands go, Fitz softly grabbed her chin and turned her head so she was able to look at him.

"Don't cry, Jemma, please." He sighed, it physically ached him to see her like this.

Fitz didn't know what to do, so he panicked. He leaned in and carefully placed his lips on hers. Jemma, shocked by the sudden action, closed her eyes and leaned into the kiss. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she deepened the kiss.

After what seemed like hours, Fitz slowly pulled away. He opened his eyes, and licked his parted lips.

They sat in a comfortable silence for a while, each of them replaying the scene that played out in their head. Finally, Simmons decided to speak first. Clearing her throat, and her voice hoarse she spoke.

"I think I'm gonna head to bed." She decided, picking her head up to look at him.

"Yeah, yeah. Me too, I just have to clear these files out." He breathed, still catching his breath from earlier

Standing up, she started heading for the door. She turned around before she exited and called out.

"That was nice though. I like it, it kind of helped me forget, you know?" She half smiled, as her eyes were glazed with tears from earlier.

"I'm glad I could help." Fitz smiled back, he hasn't seen her smile in days. "We should – we should do it again sometime, yeah?" He continued, his heart getting the best of him.

"Are you asking me out? Like on a date?" She teased him, smiling to herself.

"Only if you want it to be."

"Yeah, yeah I think I do. It was nice forgetting about home for a while. See you tomorrow for dinner?" Jemma asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Yeah, see you then."

And with that, she turned around and walked out, heading for bed and the thought of home slowly slipping from her mind.


End file.
